Bookmakers rate Penn State's schedule among nation's toughest
With the 2021 college football season fast approaching, Penn State's schedule has been tabbed as one of the tougher slates in the country.
According to the bookmakers at sportsbettingdime.com, the Nittany Lions will play the 26th-most difficult schedule among Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
The calculation was made using efficiency ratings from last season, and factoring in loss of player production, transfer additions and recruiting rankings from there.
RELATED: Analysis: Comparing Penn State's non-con slate to previous seasons
According to this method, Arkansas will play the most difficult schedule in college football this season, followed by Kansas, Auburn, Texas and Oklahoma State rounding out the top five.
The easiest schedule, by contrast, belongs to the Unversity of East Texas at El Paso.
The strength of Penn State's schedule is no doubt influenced by what will be a more difficult nonconference schedule than many Nittany Lions fans are accustomed to seeing under James Franklin.
Penn State will host Auburn this season in the first leg of a home-and-home that will see the Nittany Lions make the trip to Jordan-Hare in 2022.
Penn State will also welcome Ball State to Beaver Stadium, in a matchup that seems much more difficult now than it did at this time last year. Ball State won the MAC last season, besting Buffalo 38-28 in the championship game, and will return much of the talent on the roster a season ago.
Add in a season-opening trip to Wisconsin and a visit to Kinnick Stadium to play Iowa in another Big Ten West crossover game, and it's understandable that the Nittany Lions are so high on this list.
Here's how the Big Ten ranks:
| School | Difficulty Rating | Big Ten Rank | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Iowa |
75.31 |
1 |
12 |
|
Michigan |
73.88 |
2 |
13 |
|
Purdue |
65.64 |
3 |
15 |
|
Illinois |
57.51 |
4 |
23 |
|
Nebraska |
56.46 |
5 |
24 |
|
Wisconsin |
54.27 |
6 |
25 |
|
Penn State |
53.59 |
7 |
26 |
|
Rutgers |
48.73 |
8 |
30 |
|
Ohio State |
45.75 |
9 |
33 |
|
Minnesota |
44.96 |
10 |
34 |
|
Northwestern |
41.46 |
11 |
35 |
|
Michigan State |
33.54 |
12 |
40 |
|
Indiana |
24.59 |
13 |
43 |
|
Maryland |
9.15 |
14 |
54 |
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